Assisted suicide should be legal for patients with terminal illness – report

Doctors could be given the right to help patients with a terminal illness die if they have less than a year to live, a new report has stated.

Doctors could help terminally ill patients die

The Commission on Assisted Dying, which is funded by author Terry Pratchett , who suffers from early onset dementia, has said that such individuals would be able to ask their doctor for a dose of medicine to help end their life under new proposed assisted suicide regulations.

However, the commission’s chair, baron Charles Falconer of Thoroton said that stringent safeguards would be put in place to protect those who may not have the mental capacity to make the choice, anyone suffering from depression or those who feel under pressure from friends and family.

In addition, the patient would have to take the medicine themselves, as a sign that the decision was voluntary.

Currently, under English and Welsh law euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal and punishable by up to 14 years in prison, however, under new guidelines for prosecutors brought in last year, anyone acting with compassion to end a terminally ill person’s life is unlikely to face criminal charges.

The new changes suggested by the commission have come under scrutiny from campaign groups, including Care Not Killing campaign director Dr Peter Saunders.

‘What the commission is proposing is a less safe version of the highly-controversial Oregon law, which sees the terminally ill offered drugs to kill themselves, but not expensive life-saving and life-extending drugs,’ he said.